Asian Tiger Mosquito

I’m writing about mosquitoes again! Perhaps because they’ve been my biggest tormentors. Something about me beckons every mosquito in the vicinity to come swarming towards me. Despite the bites that itch like anything I’ve been lucky to never have malaria, chikungunya, dengue or any of the other more deadly mosquito transmitted diseases. The monsoon has come to Delhi and the rain forms little puddles and water pools that are perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Some, like the Asian Tiger Mosquito need only as much water as there is in a bottle cap to lay their eggs.

Have you ever seen the Asian Tiger Mosquito? I have! And we have marveled at it’s striped black and white legs and the extra sting of it’s bite. I read now in Live Science that this Tiger Mosquito has made it’s way to the US. How? Eggs and larvae hatched in the standing water in car tyres being transported in ships. As a result, those peculiarly Asian diseases – Dengue Fever are being experienced in other parts of the world. Connection? Of a kind I guess. It doesn’t discriminate. It bites squirrels, dogs, deer and other animals as well as people.

This day biting mosquito has not yet made it to Australia “Australia is free from the Asian tiger mosquito and we want to keep it that way,” AQIS warns on a web page devoted to the insect. It has however reached Europe where people are worried about it. It’s reached as far north as Scandinavia.“Eggs from strains in the temperate zones are more tolerant to the cold than ones from warmer regions,”

So what can you do about it? Reach for the DEET? Try not to. This excellent article has some brilliant ideas for natural ways of keeping mosquitoes at bay. Some I have written about in an earlier post – others are new. Eating garlic, catnip oil ( no don’t eat it), keep it near by, lemon eucalyptus oil, IR 3535- lovely suggestions all. Of course, lovers of strong poisons bemoan the fact that you have to reapply the milder, natural repellents. I say – that’s fine – the benefits outweigh the mild trouble you go to. One of the suggestions is – ditch the bug zapper. What a relief – I’ve always disliked those things and been turned off my food in eating joints that electrocute living creatures.